


Incandescent

by flamingribbons



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Fluff, I don't go into detail with being trans, Keith and Shiro are Siblings, Keith isn't an orphan but I don't talk about either of their families a lot, M/M, Slow Burn, Trans Male Character, nonbinary pidge, they have jobs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 23:44:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10524408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamingribbons/pseuds/flamingribbons
Summary: Keith and Lance are roommates just out of high school. This story is about the progression of their relationship and daily lives together in a new apartment they share. They aren't close at first, but they are trying their best to make their lives comfortable with each other.





	1. moving in

**Author's Note:**

> It's primarily told in Keith's view so far. Hopefully I'll be able to tell it from Lance's p.o.v. also (,,,eventually)  
> I'm a new writer; I'll admit writing isn't really my thing but I had an idea and felt the need to act on it  
> I hope it's enjoyable nonetheless!

Keith stood at the door to his new apartment and fumbled for his keys. His hands were filled with his belongings and he couldn’t seem to get a good grip without something almost falling. He banged on the door with his knee, hoping his flatmate could hear him. He’d seen his car out front so he knew he was inside. After a few moments of waiting and his arms growing more tired, Keith lifted his foot up to the doorbell to ring it, almost losing his balance. As he peeked through the tall and narrow window beside the door, the door swung open, startling him a bit.

“Help me with getting my stuff in,” he brushed past the thin boy at the door so he could drop his boxes and relieve his muscles from the growing sting.

“Jeez what’s in those? How much stuff did you bring?” the boy asked. He was someone Keith had known for a while so they skipped the formalities of greeting. Keith wouldn’t say they were great friends though.

Keith pointed out the open doorway, “Not much, just the rest of the stuff at the bottom of the stairs. I left a lot of my stuff in my room back home. It’s not like we’re far from our parents’ houses so I figured why not leave it there since I can just go there whenever.”

They went to the bottom of the stairs to get the rest of Keith’s stuff. The other boy lifted a box and obviously strained trying to pick it up. “Oh yeah, that one’s pretty heavy, let me get that,” Keith held out his arms to have the box transferred over to him. “Here—“

“No, no, I got it.”

“Lance, just give it to me.” Keith gave him serious stare making Lance give in (to his dismay) and hand the box over, which Keith carried with more ease. When they’d gotten all of Keith’s belongings inside, he refused Lance’s offer to help unpack and put away. He insisted that he had a method and didn’t want Lance to ‘get his business all up in his junk’. Lance had unpacked all of his own stuff the day before, so he got the advantage of picking which one of the two rooms he wanted. Not that there was much difference anyway. Keith was very grateful to see that there was a bed frame, mattress, and one nightstand of a set already awaiting him in his room. Lance’s dad had told him he was bringing over old furniture but he hadn’t expected it to be present on his first day moving in. He dressed his bed in sheets and a comforter he’d used at home and some new pillows his mom was so kind to give him before moving out. As an added touch before leaving the rest of the unpacking to do for later, he plugged in his blue and red lava lamp and placed it on the nightstand. It wasn’t bright and couldn’t be used for any actual light able to read under, but it still looked hella cool.

When Keith stepped back into the living room he wondered how he didn’t notice the low coffee table that was in the center. It was warped but it looked perfectly functional for a table. Although they didn’t have all that much, he thanked the gods that the kitchen had all the basic utilities a kitchen should have and that they had a bathroom with a functional shower/bath. However, everything was empty with no basic supplies. In the living room, Lance was lying down on the floor next to the coffee table, looking at his phone.

“Hey Lance, do you have a piece of paper?” Keith nudged Lance in the side with his foot.

Lance looked away from his phone questioningly. “No, why? Don’t you have some? You always have a notebook somewhere.”

“My sketchbook is for drawing only. And I never tear any paper out of it.” He pulled a thin sharpie from a pocket, “It doesn’t matter; I don’t need paper.” He started writing on his forearm, underlining a title for a list: “TO BRING”.  “Toilet paper, bar soap, shampoo—Lance you bring whatever weird toiletries you need,” he heard an objection but was too busy trying to think of other things they needed. “Eggs, bread, cereal, _milk_ , rice, ramen because it’s cheap and everyone eats ramen,” Keith mumbled.

Sitting up, Lance commented on Keith’s mumbling. “Why are you getting food to keep here? Aren’t you just going to eat at your parents’ place? You’re the one who said it’s close enough.”

Keith blew air out of his nose as a little laugh, almost. “Yeah, sure, but I don’t want to eat there _all_ the time. If I do that then I may as well just have stayed living with them.” He visibly cringed, and added a mental note to try not to eat over too often.

“Fair enough.” Lance flopped back down on the floor.

After a few moments of silence and Keith staring at the dreadful blankness of the living room and appalling lack of a television, he caught Lance’s attention again. “Hey.” He heard a grunt of ‘hm’ come from Lance. “Come help me bring my TV set over tomorrow. I’m going to need your car ’cause I don’t want to ask my parents to come over again. You don’t have work tomorrow, right?”

“Nah, and even if I did, I’m not missing a chance to get a television! Grad gift?”

“Yeah,” Keith smiled from thinking about how he could set up his consoles and play in peace without his parents griping at him to turn it off, turn it down, or let them use it. If Lance asked to use it while he was, he’d already planned on pinning the “it’s my TV” line on him.

**☷**

It took Keith a lot longer than he’d expected to arrange all of the things he brought that first day. By the time he’d finally finished he looked out the window in his room to see an almost finished sunset. “Curtains,,,” he said to himself as he added it onto his growing list.

“Hey Keith!” he heard his name being called from the living area. “What do you like on pizza?”

He shrugged even though he knew Lance couldn’t see him from where he was at. “I dunno, normal stuff? “Bell pepper and olives—or maybe spinach and mushrooms,” what did he like again? Was pineapple on pizza a thing that he liked? He thought he probably liked it. He trailed off in thought and almost missed Lance’s screech of horror. “Jesus, Lance what the-“ he turned around and flinched to see Lance at his doorway.

“You sir, are paying for your own pizza if you are going to ask for any of that. You call that a normal pizza?” his face was one of disgust and disbelief.

“Why can’t you get half and half then? One side for you one for me. Problem solved.”

“Because _maybe_ I want to eat more than four slices,” Lance stated as if it was obvious.

Keith’s stomach churned at the thought of eating that much food in one go. “Fine. Cheese? Beef? I don’t really care as long as it’s not pepperoni.”

“Deal.” Lance said before heading back into the living area. Keith sighed and was glad he’d already decided to buy his own food for storage so they wouldn’t have to go through this often.

They had a fairly silent dinner at the coffee table. Lance had flirted with whoever delivered their pizza, probably trying to make up for how much they didn’t have left over to give as a tip. They were glued to their devices while eating, Lance more so than Keith. Occasionally Lance would laugh and Keith would look over curiously but he never showed him what he was laughing about. It was probably for the best; Keith didn’t think they shared many similarities and was very sure that sense of humor was one of those unshared things.

After their late dinner Keith went straight to his new room to try to get a feel of his bed. He undressed and felt a heap of tension lift from between his neck and shoulders. He heard the shower turn on through his bedroom wall and assumed Lance had brought his fancy toiletries the first day he came over. He wouldn’t be surprised, because how else did he keep his skin so impeccably clear? A day without care might mess it up. Or maybe Lance was just gifted with the great genetics of perfect skin. Either way Keith knew that this night of not showering for himself couldn’t possibly mess his skin up more than it already was.

At least a half hour later Keith heard a knock on his door. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t wake him up because he hadn’t fallen asleep yet. “Yeah?”

“Uh,,, good night,” Lance’s voice wasn’t very loud on the other side of the door.

“Oh, yeah,” he hadn’t thought about saying goodnight before. It felt strange. He was going to be living with Lance from now on. “’Night Lance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to ask questions and critique! I'd love it  
> I think all of the chapters are going to be quite short and it may not flow completely(?) but I'm thinking that as their relationship gets more complex, the chapters will tie more together and get longer.  
> I wasn't sure what tags to put either. I don't know everything that is going to happen although I do have some sort of an outline  
> (Is it possible to change a title of something also bc I'm so not sure abt this title)


	2. setting up

“Thanks for lending me your car.” Keith and Lance were on their way to Keith’s parents’ house to pick up his television and gaming consoles.

“Sure, no problem as long as I get to play your games too.” Lance left all of his back at his parents’ place for his siblings to play with. He’d wanted to bring them to the new apartment but they fussed so much about how unfair he was being that he gave in to their incessant whining. “Your brother didn’t take them with him when he moved out?”

“Shiro?” Keith looked out of the car window at the passing scenery. “Nah, he took the PlayStation and Xbox but those were basically his anyway. Plus I didn’t use them much.” Lance replied with “oh” and they didn’t say much else until they got to the house.

When Keith’s mom opened the door, Lance greeted her rather cheerfully. “Hi, Mrs. Kogane!”

“Hello; Lance, was it? And,” she paused, “Keith too?” the woman craned her neck slightly to get a better look at her son. “Come on in.” The house wasn’t very large inside. It had two floors and neither was very spacious.

Keith looked around briefly. “Where’s dad?”

“Walking his dog. Why, did you need him for something? Or maybe I can do it?” his mom offered.

“No, and it’s fine. Just wondering. We came by to pick up the TV.” He went up the stairs to where he left it in its box and motioned for Lance to follow.  He stood in front of the flat screen and clicked his tongue. “Hold on a sec Lance I gotta get a box from the garage.” Keith hurried down the stairs and into the garage through a door on the inside of the house. He grabbed a large box he deemed formidable and rushed back up to the second floor. Glancing at Lance who looked like he didn’t know what to do with himself, he set the box down on the floor. “This might take a few trips to get everything into your car.”

“That’s fine. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. I’m _aching_ to get this thing back and set it up,” Lance pumped his fists excitedly.

Keith raised an eyebrow, “Dude, it’s not even yours. Who said you’d be using it?”

“ _Excuse me?”_ Lance scowled, “I’m pretty sure we agreed I’d have my share of time also.”

“I don’t recall, but I’ll leave it as maybe you can use it sometime.”

“Oh, I will _definitely_ be using this baby.”

“ _Possibly._  Don’t push it, McClain.” He grabbed one end of the television. “Now help me drag this down the stairs.” Lance didn’t budge, and neither did Keith. Lance stood with his arms crossed and nose in the air, refusing to do a favor for someone who was being rude. “Fine,” Keith shrugged, “I can bring it down by myself.” He smirked, knowing that Lance would rather help than watch Keith show off, and it worked.

Back upstairs, they began filling the large box with Keith’s consoles and games. Heaps of disks and cartridges from various Nintendo consoles piled into the box.

“Holy, balls! How do you have so many?!” Lance held a couple of games in his hands.

Keith shrugged, “I just collected them throughout my life. Some of them Shiro bought and most of them my parents got for us. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t already dump them out, considering how much they hate them.”

“Why’d they buy so many if they hate them?”

“I guess they saw how happy they made us or something. They threatened to throw them out a lot but they’re all still here.” Keith paused, “my dad used to play some of them but now he claims he’s too old. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of them. At least, not Zelda.”

“Me too, buddy.” Lance agreed. Keith looked up at him. “I don’t have all of the ones you do, but the ones I have played are freakin’ awesome.”

Keith smiled, “I could go on all night about them.”

☷

They loaded Lance’s car up with the TV, games, and a last minute old television stand Keith asked to take since it was rotting in the garage anyway. The back of the car sagged heavily. When they got to the apartment they had a difficult time carrying the stand up the stairs.

“Hey! Watch it!” Keith called from below. Lance had lost his grip slightly on the stand.

“ _You_ try going upstairs backwards while keeping a ten ton piece of furniture from smashing on someone! It’s not that easy!”

“Yeah well I’m the one who’s going to be crushed if you don’t be more careful!”

“I _am_ being careful!”

Eventually, everything was fit through their apartment door and the television was placed on the stand. Keith fumbled through instructions and examined different chords that surely had some place to plug into on the TV. “Hmmmmmm...” he groaned, “I _think_ this goes here? No? HDMI...?” In the mess, he’d gathered his consoles and was also trying to connect them to a box that connected to the TV so he could flip a switch to which console he wanted displayed. “ _Ugh,_ there’s so many wires in the way I can’t see a thing.”

“You’d think a gaming nerd like you would know all about this kind of stuff, wouldn’t you?” Lance chimed in.

“Oh, like you would know how to put these things in?” Keith retorted.

“In fact, I _do._ ”

Keith huffed, already frustrated by the chords and now even more frustrated by Lance’s comment. “Fine then, be my guest.” He moved to make way for Lance. It didn’t take long before he’d figured out where they all went and plugged them in. Keith was surprised at how diligent Lance looked and that he had had enough patience to shuffle through the tangled wires.

“Bingo! And with that, you owe me,” Lance smirked.

“Alright, smart-ass, what do you want?” Keith rolled his eyes and placed his hand on his hip.

“How about a game of Mario Kart?” Lance had a confident expression on his face.

A bit confused, Keith questioned, “Really? You know I’m going to win, right?”

To that, Lance shrugged. “We’ll see about that. I’ve been practicing and I have a few tricks up my sleeves,” he pushed his sleeves up and wiggled his fingers mischievously.

“Oh you are on,” Keith stopped himself from speaking further. Did he really almost just say ‘pretty boy’? Thank the gods he caught himself before he did. That would have been hard to come back from. Keith grabbed his Wii remote and nunchuck while Lance opted for a GameCube controller, then set the rules for the race. Thirty-six races, all items, aggressive. 150cc with random course selection. They selected their characters: Mario for Keith and Toad for Lance.

“Toad? Really?”

“What? I like Toad! What’s wrong with that?” Lance defended himself.

“I dunno, I guess nothing. I just expected something more like Waluigi.”

“What, because I’m such a huge meme? And what about you Mr. Generic picking Mario?” he pointed to the screen.

“I gotta go with my main man. Mediums have Dolphin Dasher, too. Besides, I’m used to always picking him since Shiro was always Luigi.” Keith liked to keep using Mario since it was something the two brothers had always kept up with through the years.

“Isn’t that a little backwards? Shiro seems like, so much cooler. He doesn’t seem like the Luigi kind of guy.”

“Don’t hate on Luigi, he’s just as good. And watch it, sharpshooter,” he scowled as a green shell from Lance just barely missed him. Lance whistled at the nickname, making Keith groan.

They had a heated battle, with Keith in first most of the time and Lance right behind him. Only a couple of times when Lance had actually beat him Keith claimed he’d just had a bad race, the course wasn’t the best, or that someone royally screwed him over like getting blue shelled every single time he was in first doubled with getting hit mid-air and falling. Keith didn’t think that their neighbors were home at the time, but if they were they probably would have complained. They were yelling and cursing at each other like sailors.

“Ugh! Fuck you, baby Peach! I’m going to get you back so hard,,,”

“Get out of my butt, Lance! Jesus fucking Christ!”

“Are you kidding me? Are you _kidding_ me? I can _not_ believe you just did that.”

“Shit!” Lance crossed the finish line in sixth.

“Haha!” Keith pronounced his laugh, “you got sixth like a _loser_.”

“Aw, come _on!_ Alright next race I’m getting first.”

It took them hours to finish all the races. By the end of it their throats were sore. Keith won with first place and Lance got second.

“See? I told you I’d win.” Keith exhaled, tired from all the hype.

“I was close, I could have beaten you if you weren’t such a dirty player,” Lance insisted.

Keith chuckled, “You just keep on believing that.”

☷

Keith stayed at their apartment for dinner again, but he went to the store beforehand to buy some of the supplies he still had written on his arm. He didn’t have room on the back of his bike to fit much so he decided toilet paper and ramen were all he was going to get for now. Lance went home for dinner that night, and Keith didn’t see him before he’d gone to bed. He stared at his new ceiling that he was going to have to get used to. Keith felt like there was something missing despite admittingly having fun that day, and it wasn’t a couch or more belongings from home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's been reading! Like I said, so far chapters are going to be pretty short. I'm hoping that writing more will make me more comfortable with different characters' personalities, consistencies, and concepts. Honestly, to all you writers, I don't know how you do it but you're amazing. 
> 
> I hope I can get at least one chapter out every weekend but we'll see how that turns out, haha
> 
> How does one end chapters;;;


	3. finding something

Keith sat at a table across from his friend Pidge. They had stopped by Keith's workplace while he was on break, but still demanded that he made them a drink despite it. He reluctantly agreed, deciding to make himself one as well.

Keith had two jobs: one at an ice cream parlor and another at a boba tea café. He was currently working at the boba café. It was a nice place to relax in mid June, which meant that flocks of people came in throughout the day. It was busy, but it paid well.

"So, how's it going at the apartment with Lance?" Pidge asked Keith, sipping at their tea.

"It's okay, I guess. He hasn't been too terrible," he paused to cough, "yet." He took a large swig of tea, trying to soothe his throat. It was still raw from playing Mario Kart with Lance.

Pidge straightened their glasses with a smirk. "Gee, Keith, what did you do to your throat? Sucking too much dick?" They winked.

A tapioca pearl almost made Keith choke as he inhaled sharply, which didn't improve his condition. He spluttered into a napkin before hissing, "Pidge!" He looked around the room cautiously, "What the Hell? You can't just say that casually; I work here!" He swallowed before adding, "and you know I've never touched a dick in my life."

"I know, and it's honestly kinda sad. By this point I almost want you to get some action."

Keith's face turned bright red. "Why are you like this? What kind of person wishes that for their friend?" He didn't like to think about anything having to do with the topic. Several aspects of it made him uncomfortable.

Brushing his response aside, Pidge continued. "Why did you two decide to move in together again? You mean to tell me it _wasn't_ some sort of ploy to get in his pants?"

Keith groaned loudly, "Oh my God, Pidge. Please." He shielded his face from the rest of the people in the café. Whether they were looking or not, he was still embarrassed.

"It’s because we both wanted more freedom, but we couldn't afford to pay the rent by ourselves. Trust me; it took a long time to finally accept that moving in together was our best option."

"Yeah, sure," Pidge hummed, unconvinced.

"Seriously, Pidge. He's a pain in the ass. Plus I don't know him that well." He, Pidge, Lance, and Hunk, Lance's best friend, had hung around each other quite a bit during high school, but Keith had mainly clung to Pidge. He hadn't talked to the other two members of their group an awful lot. Even so, he knew Hunk was like a gentle giant and that Lance got on his nerves. A lot. It had seemed like Lance _tried_ to piss him off. "Maybe this could be good. That, or it will be horribly bad. No in between."

Pidge nodded in agreeance. "As fun as it would be to watch you guys fight all the time, I hope you get along so I can come over and mooch off your games."

"Pidge, you have just as many as me, if not more. You don't need to mooch off of them."

"Yeah, but it's more fun when I can go head-to-head with you," they said off to the side, "and win."

"Not you too, I already had one loser try to one up me," Keith sighed. "And I won."

Pidge looked at him curiously, "At what, Mario Kart? Did you and Lance play Mario Kart together? So _that's_ what happened to your throat. Awwww~" They joked, "Okay, but you know I can beat you. I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you."

"I don't know about that. I've been practicing a lot since last time."

Keith's co-worker waved over at him and tapped their watch, signaling his break was over. "Tell you what, we'll have a rematch sometime and we'll see how you hold up." He held his pinky out for a promise.

"Alright, deal.” Pidge took his pinky and pulled on it lightly before getting up. “See you, later; I gotta get back home to walk Rover anyway. Have fun!" They got up and waved as they left the café.

Keith grumbled, "Sure, fun."

☷

Keith came back to his apartment in the afternoon after a tiring day of work and didn't bother changing out of his uniform before flopping down on the floor. Not long after, he heard keys moving in the front door's lock and light flooded the area he was laying in.

"I'm home!"

Keith sat up to see Lance stepping inside. As he closed the door, a thought occurred to Keith. 'Home?' He wondered how Lance could call this place home already. To Keith, it felt more like just a place he slept at.

Nevertheless, he greeted him anyway, "Uh, welcome back?" Looking at Lance, he couldn't help but to think of what Pidge had said earlier. His face scrunched up as if he'd eaten something unsavory.

"Uh, welcome back?" Lance repeated mockingly. Suddenly, without warning, he began taking off his own work's uniform shirt and Keith's heart skipped a beat. He frowned at his heart’s betrayal. ‘Wouldn't anyone's if they saw someone take their shirt off?’ He thought to himself for reassurance, and was relieved to see that Lance had an undershirt on beneath.

"You alright?"Lance asked, as if he was trying to seem like he cared, "Why's your uniform still on?"

"Unlike you, I don't have an undershirt. And it's not like I really need to; I don't have a terrible uniform," Keith paused, "Unlike bag bitches."

"If I'm making the same amount of money with less work, bagging items is fine by me." Lance threw his shirt to Keith, "Catch."

"Hey-!" Keith swatted the shirt out of his face and balled it up to throw it at the back of Lance's head. It hit him straight on, making him let out a small grunt. Lance looked back at Keith, who was now standing in a post-throw position, with his brows furrowed.

"Chill, it's just a shirt," Lance looked irritated and tired, like he didn't feel like fighting, which almost disappointed Keith. He relaxed his shoulders and stood up straight, facing Lance. He searched for something to say back to him, but found nothing coming to mind.

Keith thought about changing out into normal clothes like Lance, but ultimately decided not to since that meant he would need to do more laundry and have to go to his parents’ house sooner than he would like. There wasn't a washer or dryer in their apartment, and he wasn't about to spend time and money at a public laundromat. Maybe in the future, but not now. He could live with wearing the same uniform to work a couple of days in a row. If he put enough deodorant on he could try to mask any smell there might be.

Lance came out of his room in fresh clothing, and Keith found himself staring at him in silence. He'd thought they would have more to say to each other, whether it was mean or not. They didn't have any classes to talk about, and neither seemed very interested in current events. The last thing Keith wanted was to end up in awkward smalltalk. However, their alternative was a just-as-awkward hush that overcame the apartment that could have gone on for hours. Keith pulled out his headphones and began one of his playlists for at least some sort of background noise.

☷

Lance and Keith were lying on the floor as usual. Keith had a game up on the television screen but it was paused. He looked at the dim light coming through a window. It looked like it was about six o'clock, but it was hard to tell this time of year. The long days always made it seem earlier than it actually was.

Although he enjoyed games, Keith felt like he didn’t know what to do with himself during all of his extra free time at the apartment. Keith usually would have killed for some free time if it wasn't for that all of his days were filled with nothing interesting anymore. School had kept him busy before they graduated; now he wished for something weird to fall out of the sky or for a wizard to come knocking at his door telling him he needed to go on a quest to save a far off land, but that time never came. Instead, he was stuck having a boring job, in a boring apartment, with a guy who probably wanted nothing do with him.

He'd noticed that Lance hadn't been as competitive lately. It probably had to do with the fact they had nothing to prove to each other. They couldn't compete for grades or achievements in either academics or sports. There was no perfect attendance award when you had nowhere to be. Sick of being bored, Keith got out his phone and looked for something to do in town.

After potentially finding something, Keith tried getting Lance’s attention. “Hey.” There was no response. “Hey, Lance,” he tried again, poking the boy’s side, “how does trivia sound?”

“What do you mean?” Lance scowled and rubbed the area where Keith had jabbed him.

“I mean, do you want to go play trivia? There’s a bar downtown that’s having a trivia night. Apparently, they have it every week.” Keith shrugged, “I mean, we don’t have to; I’m just trying to think of something ‘cause I’m like, really bored.” He scrolled aimlessly on his phone, acting like he was looking for something else.

“No, no. I mean, no as in ‘no I _do_ want to go’. I’m bored out of my mind, too. When is it?”

Keith checked again, “Uh, seven.”

Lance looked at his phone’s clock. “Shoot! We’d better get going then!” Lance scrambled up, and dashed to his room.

“Where are you going?” Keith looked down the short hall after Lance.

“Just-! Give me a second!” Lance came back out of his room dressed in nicer clothing, keys in hand. Keith eyed Lance from head to toe then compared himself.

“What’s all that for?” They were just going to a bar for trivia. He didn’t see why they couldn’t just go in what they had been wearing.

Lance’s expression was mischievous. “You never know when you’ll have a chance to impress the ladies,,,~” His words rolled off his tongue smoothly as he gave Keith a meaningful wink. “You’d better change your shirt too. You don’t want everyone knowing you only get paid minimum wage.”

“No one’s going to be thinking that we have real jobs. They can definitely tell we’re not out of college.” Keith muttered back, but changed his shirt anyway. He didn’t really want to go in public still wearing his work shirt if he wasn’t working.

They took Lance’s car to the downtown bar. Downtown was known to be pretty sketchy at night, so they made sure to find a nice parking spot in plain sight and not near any alleyways. Keith met a guy once who got hit in the head with a pipe while going down one of the alleyways at night; even if Keith felt like he was skilled enough to fight them off, he didn’t want to take the risk.

The bar was loud, filled with rowdy drunkards, and smelled of alcohol. Lance and Keith were still underage, and didn’t want to get in too much trouble, so they steered clear of anyone at the actual bar counter.

Trivia was outside with a few people already seated at tables, ready to play. After they found an empty table for themselves, they were offered a drink menu. Considering their choices, they both decided on lemonade, being one of the only good non-alcoholic beverages available. Keith ate the lemon wedge from his glass the same way someone might eat an orange slice.

“No wonder you’re so sour,” Lance stared, his mouth agape in disbelief.

Keith raised a brow, “What?” His question was left unanswered by Lance shaking his head disapprovingly.

The game of trivia began shortly after they arrived. The two worked against each other rather than on a team like most of the people playing. Neither of them did well at all, as most of the questions were about TV shows they didn’t watch, songs they didn’t listen to, and sports they knew nothing about. That’s not to say it wasn’t heated between the two of them. Even if both of them lost, they each tried to one up the other by not being the first loser. They ultimately tied in the end and they both agreed to brush up on their skills to come back another week.

Although the game was over, the boys lingered at their table. Keith let his eyes wander, spotting a couple of giggling girls looking in their direction. He rolled his eyes, foreseeing what an annoying situation he’d put himself in. Only moments later did the girls approach their table and request to sit down with them. Keith remained silent, while Lance enthusiastically agreed to let the girls sit with them, knowing if he tried to deny them seats it would be in futility. He rolled his eyes again in annoyance as Lance even got up to pull the chairs out for the ladies. ‘Like you’re such a gentleman,’ Keith thought to himself.

He hadn’t been listening in to the conversation surrounding him, trying to block out all the cringe-worthy pickup lines that Lance obviously thought were smooth; he even ran his hand through his hair with each one, giving the girls a wide, toothy grin. Of course, the girls giggled at each one. The girl next to Keith only caught his attention when she addressed him directly.

“So, do you have a girlfriend?” Her mouth seemed to move slowly, and her lip gloss was distracting. Keith noted it wasn’t in a good way, either; it was too shiny, and her lips looked disgustingly wet.

He didn’t want to answer, but did out of courtesy. “No, I don’t date,” he said, disinterested in what she was hinting at. He sipped on his third glass of lemonade, thinking about how badly he was going to have to pee when they got back.

“You must!” the girl acted surprised about by his response, “It would be such a waste not to!” At this, Keith rolled his eyes without trying to hide it.

He looked at the girl, who was now offended, and said bluntly, “You’re the one who’s wasting both of our time tonight. I’d appreciate it if you left me alone now, thank you.”

Lance, with his arm behind the other girl he’d been hitting on, glared at Keith but was clearly trying to restrain himself from lashing out. “What’s your deal? These lovely ladies are just being friendly; cool yourself.”

“What?” Keith squinted in disbelief, “It’s not like you’re planning on taking either of them home anyway.”

Lance looked like he was at a loss, and turned to the girls whose mouths’ were open in offence, “Ladies, I would be more than happy to take you home if you wanted. Who needs this wet blanket?” He pointed over at Keith with his thumb.

“Close your mouths, you’re going to swallow a fly. Also, last time I checked I’m paying half of your rent and if you don’t take me back home it’s all on you. Pretty soon you’ll have to move back home.” The girls had started to get up and leave.

“You’ll have to move back home too, dumbass!” Lance got up angrily as well and followed the girls. He tried to apologize to them but they ignored him, leaving in a huff. He glared once at Keith before walking out of the bar.

Keith sat at the table by himself for a while, brooding. He swished his straw around in the glass, the remaining ice clinking. He had accepted that he’d have to find some other mode of transportation to get back to his apartment. Their ‘argument’, which was mainly Keith insulting strangers, wasn’t large enough for him to feel the need to sleep over at someone else’s place. He walked out of the bar, after paying for their drinks, with his hands in his pockets.

“Hey.”

Keith looked up from the pavement to see Lance’s car parked right outside on the side of the road, with Lance himself leaning on it.

Keith approached him. Lance stared at him for a moment, before entering the car, grumbling, “You have _got_ to learn how to drive."

Keith smiled faintly to himself before entering the car after him.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keith rolls his eyes a lot here pfft  
> Also, what kind of music do you guys think Keith would have in his playlist? I know what I think he'd have but I'm interested in your guys' hc's too
> 
> Thank you to those reading and giving feedback! I was really nervous about this but I'm feeling pretty pumped about it now  
> I've been jotting down lots of ideas to make it more coherent, so I've kinda been in a hurry to write so I can get to more fun chapters
> 
> Big thanks to my friend Zayden for being my editor for this chapter! I was having a difficult time writing this one and he def helped me; he doesn't have an ao3 acct but I gotta give him cred too <3


	4. movie night

It was dark in Keith's room when he woke up even though he was certain it was late in the morning. The dark curtains blocked out so much light that he couldn't tell what time of day it was without checking.

Still without a clock, he rolled towards his window to peek out of the curtains. The sunlight was quick to assault his eyes and he covered them with his hand; it was more than enough to tell him it was day.

Summer was too hot to sleep fully clothed, but he wasn't about to sleep without a shirt; it left him feeling exposed. With a groan, he reluctantly got out of bed to put on a pair of baggy shorts.

He trudged to his door and opened it slowly, hunching over to peek out. He looked for any sign that Lance was awake. By the silence, he assumed he wasn't. Keith slipped out of his room quietly and headed towards their tiny kitchen to make himself a bowl of cereal.

However, before he was able to pour the milk, a pair of slim, dark hands plunged into his cereal. Keith jumped in startlement, then quickly grew furious with realization.

“Lance!” He hadn't even heard his flatmate sneak up behind him, “Oh my _God!”_

He was unable to do anything while Lance shoved the stolen cereal into his mouth. Keith started to scold the other boy feverishly, “That’s _my_ cereal! You have your own! And...and, you can't just _do_ that! When was the last time you washed your hands?” Despite knowing Lance was very hygenic, he couldn’t help but feel disgusted.

Without bothering to swallow the mouthful, Lance rolled his eyes and mumbled, “It’s not like it’s infected.”

Keith groaned, rubbing his face in exasperation. He was too tired to continue a winded explanation of all the reasons why Lance shouldn’t reach into someone else's food with his hands. Instead, he stared queasily at his bowl of cereal. He had an issue with the thought that Lance’s hands somehow tainted his cereal, but he also didn’t want to waste food. He poured the milk in anyway, grumbling “I hope your cereal goes soggy,” in Lance’s direction.

Keith sat at the coffee table, grumpily eating his cereal when his phone buzzed; it moved lazily due to the vibrations, as if it was affected by the morning as well. He unlocked it to see it was Shiro.

> **Shiro :** So, How are things with you and Lance?
> 
> **Keith :** What do you mean? Fine? I guess?
> 
> **Shiro :** You guess?
> 
> **Shiro :** Lance is the loud one you always talk about, right?

Keith had talked about his friends to Shiro but none of them had actually met. He didn't really see any reason for them to.

> **Keith :** Yeah? And I don't always talk about him,,,
> 
> **Shiro :** Just making sure
> 
> **Shiro :**...
> 
> **Shiro :** Heads up I’m going to call cause I don't know if I believe you

“Nonononono don’t–” Keith mumbled hastily, ready to type before his phone began to ring. Although they talked often and were easily able to in person, talking on the phone with his brother always brought Keith an unusual sense of dread. “Whyyy?” He whined upon picking up the phone.

“Hello to you too, Keith!” Shiro mocked him in an exaggerated ecstatic voice, “So~ How are things _really_ going?”

“It’s fine, really. You don't need to worry,” he fiddled with his spoon in the bowl, swirling the remaining pieces of cereal around in the milk.

“He’s not causing you too much trouble? You aren't fighting constantly?”

“No, it’s actually been getting better since we moved in. Not too many problems,” he could recall a few, but there weren't many. Certainly not as many as he thought there would be.

“I’m glad,” Keith could almost hear the smile in Shiro’s voice, “See, I knew he’s a nice guy.”

Keith sighed, “Yeah, whatever. Why did you call, anyway? Am I that untrustworthy?”

“No, I just get concerned about my little baby brother.”

“Baby–!? You're not even that much older than me! You’re so weird; why can't you be normal?”

“Aw, come on, that hurts. I know you’re glad I’m like this.”

Keith looked around, checking that no one was around before mumbling, “No, you're right. I’m thankful.”

“See? That's what I like to hear.”

A groan escaped Keith. It was exhausting talking to Shiro on the phone; he knew he could get away with almost anything when they weren't together in person. Keith would have glared daggers at him if they could have seen each other in that moment.

“I’ll see you soon, okay? Bye, I love you.”

“...Love you too,” Keith said quietly, embarrassed.

“Woah, woah!” Lance feigned shock, but maintained his mischievous grin, having just walked in as Keith hung up, “‘I love you’? Keith, who was that? I didn't know you have a heart.”

Whipping his head around to scowl at Lance, Keith responded. “Ugh, it’s just my brother; he’s super sappy.”

Lance’s mischievous smile faded as he quickly accepted the response. It was replaced by an odd expression with his eyebrows raised, as if he’d just remembered something.

“Ah, hey, speaking of family, my dad said he’d be dropping off some more furniture.”

“Today?”

“Yeah, today. Probably early afternoon. You can help bring it up, right?” Lance looked down at Keith expectantly.

He knew he could, but took some time thinking anyway, “Hm, yeah, I can. What is it though?”

“Oh,” Lance grinned brightly, obviously excited, “A futon!”

Keith’s eyes widened, and he couldn't help but smile some as well. “Woah! No way, really? Like one of those couch and bed things, right?”

“Yeah! It’s an old one we used to use, but, trust me, it’s still great,” Lance seemed proud to show off that his family owned one. He took this opportunity to show off a bit, even though they would be sharing it once they got it through the door.

“Heck yes!! Oh my gosh we will finally own a couch I’m so happy,” Keith felt like hugging Lance, but instead he remained on the floor. An image of the two of them sharing the wide couch crossed his mind briefly before he shoved it aside.

“Haha, I’m glad, me too.”

Lance looked very satisfied with Keith’s reaction and changed the topic before the mood got dull, “Okay, so,” He clasped his hands together, looking down at Keith, “I’m gonna go freshen up before my dad gets here; you should do the same.” He walked towards the back of their apartment before getting a response from Keith.

> **To : Shiro :** things are pretty good

Keith typed out the message and stared at it for a moment before deleting it. Half of him didn’t want to risk getting wrapped up in a weird conversation with Shiro, and the other half wanted to keep the thought to himself, even if it was trivial.

 ☷

Lance’s dad was a nice man from what Keith could tell. He’d been providing them with nearly all of their furniture since they moved in, and--so far-- Keith had yet to disagree with anything he said, though it could have been because he didn't seem to talk much. Keith wondered if it was because he was uncomfortable. It would make sense if he didn’t want to strike up conversation with people much younger than him, so Keith didn't linger on the idea.

Keith hadn’t expected Lance’s father to help bring the futon up the steps. He thought he looked a little too old to carry such a heavy piece of furniture, but--to his surprise--he was a fairly strong man. It took lots of work to get the couch up the stairs. Both Keith and Lance’s dad pushed it up from the bottom while Lance helped pull and maneuver. It took even more work to try to shove it through their narrow doorway.

Afterwards, when the task was done, Keith was exhausted and Lance’s dad left after giving his boy a pat on the shoulder. Keith watched them from the corner of his eye, deciding that they had a normal relationship. They didn’t look extremely close, but he knew he sensed the love that a parent should have for their child.

When Keith looked at the futon sitting in their living room, the first thing he felt like doing was lying down across it and turning on the television. He was about to when his alarm sounded, signaling him that he had to get ready for work. He began to do so with a groan.

As he was leaving he gave Lance an awkward goodbye and stared longingly at the spot on the futon that Lance had stolen. He reluctantly closed the door behind him, leaving Lance to act on Keith’s idea of relaxing.

☷

Nearing the end of Keith’s shift at the ice cream parlor, the bell on the door chimed as more people came in. He sighed, annoyed, hoping they wouldn’t be there long so he didn’t have to stay overtime without pay.

He turned to look, and recognized them immediately, feeling his annoyance subside a bit. The contrast of their physiques made for a seemingly odd pair.

“Hey, you got any ice cream?” Pidge chuckled at their own joke. Hunk was right behind them and immediately headed towards the freezer where the parlor kept all of their tubs for individual sale. The place had its own brand, and it would be a shame not to let people take some home to share with others. Something to get the word out, Keith had assumed.

“Hey guys,” Keith greeted as he wiped down the counter, “What are you here for? I’m surprised Lance isn’t with you.”

“Lance is at your guys’ place setting up the living room,” Hunk casually stated.

Keith stared at him in confusion, “For what?”

Hunk looked nearly as confused as he, “Movie…night?” he dragged out, “You guys are hosting a movie night at your place tonight… right?”

“Uhh, this is the first I’ve heard of it,” Keith looked at Pidge, figuring they had some insight.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that; I had the impression that Lance had discussed it with you too,” Pidge shrugged, “He said you guys have a sweet futon, and naturally we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a movie night. It’s the logical thing to do when someone in your friend group has their own place.”

“What is? Ambush our private space?” Keith huffed.

“Precisely,” Pidge shot a finger gun at him, “Well, Hunk and I here are gonna pick up some ice cream to bring over.” They stuck their head inside to take a look before asking, “What kind do you like, Keith?”

He paused as he realized there was no helping them coming over and succumbed to the inevitability. “I don’t really care, but if I had to chose, probably boysenberry or something.”

Pidge craned their head to look at Keith. “What the heck kind of choice is that? Boysenberry?”

“Y-yeah? Why’s that weird?”

“‘Cause, it’s like freakin-”

Hunk cut in with a chuckle, “Somehow that’s a cute choice.” He saw Keith’s dissatisfied face and tried to change his wording, “I mean, like, it’s neat, it’s original, yeah.” After a beat, he shuffled over closer to Pidge awkwardly to help gather ice cream.

Keith pulled his phone out to text Lance about the sudden get-together.

> **Keith :** Earth to Lance why didn’t you tell me Pidge and Hunk are coming over?
> 
> **Lance :** haha oops ;p looks like I forgot to send the message
> 
> **Lance :** I swear I was going to tell you rip

He sighed and put his phone away to ring the pair up, “Hey, since we’re all going to the same place, could you guys drive me back? Which one of you is driving?”

“I am,” Hunk raised his hand midway to draw Keith’s attention since he usually faced Pidge when talking to them both.

“You don’t mind, do you? And, my bike fits in your trunk..” Keith really didn’t want to be gross and sweaty, especially if  they were going to be smushed together on one couch.

“Of course not!”

“Thanks, bud.”

Keith went to clock out of his shift, removing his cap and apron, then met the two at the door. After checking that he wasn’t needed for anything else, the three gathered into Hunk’s minivan and drove off.  

“Uh, by the way,” Keith leaned forward to peek his head between the two front seats, “what movie are we watching?”

“Mo _vies_ ,” Pidge corrected.

“Okay,,, what mo _vies_ ,” he accentuated, copying Pidge, “are we watching?”

“Harry Potter!” Hunk chimed in. “We brought them all.”

“Sweet.” Keith leaned back into his seat behind them.

Upon arriving and heading up the stairs to their apartment, Keith unlocked the door for them all [when they got there] and let the other two inside before heading inside himself. When he spotted Lance sitting on the futon he made sure to give him a hard glare.

Lance looked unamused and rolled his eyes, “Oh, come on, if you really had a problem with it you wouldn’t have let them in.”

“Well, no, but I would have liked at least some forewarning. I’m just glad they stopped by my work before, instead of me coming back and finding them here unannounced.” He looked at Lance blankly, hoping he wasn’t getting any ideas. “Don’t you dare.”

Pidge, who rummaged in their cabinets for bowls, called from the kitchen, already making the place like their own home, “Hey, sweethearts, it’s not good to bicker in front of the guests!”

“I didn’t invite you!” Keith called back. Even though the apartment was tiny, they didn’t bother using quieter voices.

When they got the first movie into the player, Hunk pulled out the futon into its bed position so everyone could fit on it. Keith was glad that Hunk was strong and did the work instead of him. There was a lot of shifting to get everyone comfortably settled in; once they were all ready, they had their bowls of ice cream ready to eat during the movie instead of the usual popcorn.

Keith was engaged in the movies for the most part. The others talked throughout with the occasional complaint, comparison to the books, or anticipated ‘I love this part’ and ‘watch this’ as if all of them hadn’t seen the movies many times before. Keith hadn’t read the books so he wasn’t able to relate to the others in that aspect, but he knew enough to get by in conversations if one ever came up.

He wasn’t sure when he started zoning out, but he didn’t catch himself soon enough. He started to stare at Lance at some point, his blue eyes lit up by the television screen. Keith thought about how he looked thrilled at every moment in the movies and watched his emotions in his face fluctuate with the changing scenes. Lance felt his gaze and looked towards him, confusion and concern eventually coming over his features. He leaned in close to Keith.

“You okay? You look kinda constipated. And bored,” Lance whispered.

“No, I love Harry Potter,” Keith defended, “I just kinda spaced.” He oriented his body to face the screen to re-engage himself in the movie, but even still it was hard to keep his mind concentrated on it. He played with the spoon in his ice cream to occupy himself with but when he looked down at it it had become a milky purple puddle.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to come out, I'd been really busy with preparing for graduation and after I graduated I went on a pretty long trip. I'm getting writing back into my schedule though, so I hope to add more chapters to this and get it to someplace more meaningful. Right now they aren't very eventful chapters. I'm trying to do more planning with this now than when I started, which was basically just me writing whatever came up in my head at the time. 
> 
> Huge thanks to my friends Zayden and Faith for helping me with this! (@shuuyachan and @jmhxx on tumblr)


	5. bad feelings

Lance was stocking the shelves at the grocer he worked at when he could’ve sworn he saw a familiar face in one of the aisles he passed. He took a second look to make sure he wasn’t mistaken.

“Keith?” he knew that mullet could be no other and walked up to the boy. He flinched when Lance approached and almost dropped the box he was taking off the shelf. Lance heard him sigh as he removed his earbuds.

“Oh, hey, Lance, that’s right, you work here.”

“Uhhh _yeah_ , you knew that already,” Lance got a better look at Keith. Beads of sweat caressed his forehead and streamed down his face. He constantly had to push his soaked hair out of his face to keep the sweat from stinging his eyes and getting into his mouth. “Dude, you are _dripping_.”

“Shut up,” Keith wiped his chin on his sleeve. “You try riding a bike four miles in over 100 degree weather.”

“Fair point.”

Lance examined the items Keith held. He wasn’t carrying much; it looked like he was only there to restock their supplies of eggs and ramen. He wasn’t sure how Keith could live off of those. In the awkward silence, Keith picked up another box of cereal. Only then did Lance realize that the cereal box he’d picked up earlier wasn’t even a brand that Keith ate.

“Uh, why are you buying my cereal? I can do that.”

Keith replied coolly, “‘Cause you left the empty box in the cabinet and I _know_ you’ve been eating mine.”

“How would you know it’s empty if you don’t even eat it?”

“Maybe I was going to try some to get back at you for eating all of _mine_?” Maybe. Lance was pretty sure Keith wouldn’t have wanted to eat something as sugary as his cereal in the morning. Then again, maybe Keith could have a sweet tooth once in a while.

“You wouldn’t,” Lance tried to prove. Keith looked taken aback by the accusation.

“I would. I’ll eat some right after I get home with it just to show you,” Keith narrowed his eyes.

“Okay, go ahead, but at least let me give you the employee discount before you waste money on something you won’t even like. Plus half of this stuff you’re buying I’m going to eat anyway.”

“I won’t argue with that,” neither of them had much money and could use the discount. He picked up a quart of milk before Lance set him up at a cash register that he took over.

“Alright, coupon here, coupon there-”

“I...I didn’t have any coupons,” Keith stated, confused.

“But the store does. Don’t complain about this sweetie, I got it.” Lance put a finger to his lips to hint that he wasn’t supposed to be giving out so many discounts, but was anyway. “And my employee discount.”

Keith gathered the bags in a hurry after paying. “Thanks, see you.”

“Of course! See you at home, sugar!” Lance said loudly so that a couple of his coworkers also working the registers heard.

Keith’s legs moved faster to get him out of the store. “ _BYE,_ ” he said loudly with clear annoyance in his voice.

One of Lance’s coworkers came up to him after Keith was out of sight. “Who’s that? Your _boyfriend~?_ ” The word snaked off their tongue.

“Hell no. Just some obnoxious hothead I got stuck with.”

☷

Keith panted as he pedaled back to the apartment. He pushed his bike to go as fast as it could to get out of the heat sooner. He kicked open the door and shoved the groceries into their places before scrambling to the bathroom.

He stared at himself in the mirror, seeing how much of a wreck he looked like. There was sweat pouring down his skin, making his hair and clothing soaked. His face was excruciatingly red from the heat. Mostly the heat.

He’d known that Lance was just messing with him back at the store, but it made him flustered even though he tried to resist.

 _“Keith, don’t be stupid. You shouldn't be worked up this much over a couple of words that were clearly meant to get you riled up,”_ he told himself over and over.

He splashed cold water over his head from the sink and dried off with a towel. He gave himself another disgusted look in the mirror before going to his room and clawing his clothes off to lie down on the floor in his underwear with the fan on to cool down. He could have fallen asleep like that if he wasn’t paranoid that Lance would come home in any second even though he’d known he wouldn’t be back for at least a couple more hours.

His heart still raced from exertion; the scramble to get back home and away from Lance had put strain on Keith. He was also still uptight about what happened at the store. It was so trivial that he didn’t understand why he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Noticing how much it affected him made him angry.

After cooling off a bit he put on new clothes and took out his sketchbook to vent a little. He doodled nothing in particular, feeling his way through. Drawing was usually a good way for him to vent, but his pre-existing frustration made his lines haphazardous. To him, everything he drew looked like shit.

He yelled into the emptiness of the apartment. “I _hate_ art! I hate it so much! God _damnit_!”

☷

Lance heard yelling from inside the apartment. He debated not going inside for a moment but it didn’t seem to last long. He tentatively opened the door.

“Hey, Keith? I’m back…”

Keith whipped his head around. “Hi.”

Lance went away for a moment and came back. He stood beside the futon, looking over Keith’s shoulder. He looked very frustrated and Lance noticed the sketchbook tossed on the coffee table.

“What were you drawing?”

“Nothing,” Keith huffed.

“Okay…” Lance trailed off. “How come I’ve never seen any of your art before?”

“Why do I have to show you?” Keith moved his face further from Lance’s range of sight.

“You don’t, but I think it would be neat to see. Maybe because I want you to?”

“Too bad.”

Lance wasn’t sure how to handle Keith when he was upset. “What’s the big deal? Why are you so uptight about it?” Lance wanted to respect Keith’s privacy but his arrogance was getting to him.

“I’m _not_ uptight about it! I just don’t want to show you, okay?!”

“ _OKAY!_ ” Lance groaned, “Why do I have to come home to this? Why did I ever think this would be a good idea?”

Lance went in his room to escape the demon he lived with. He wondered if it was harsh to compare Keith to a demon.

He opened his laptop to scroll through his college’s website and check when he needed to register for classes. He knew what he wanted to focus on, which was literature and astronomy. He was only enrolling in classes he thought he was going to have fun in and play to his interests. He looked through the classes aimlessly since he already knew which ones he planned on taking. Lance got bored and started playing cubefield to pass the time while he thought.

He was glad Keith wasn’t going to college with him; when Keith started later he’d be behind him unlike how it had been in high school. Keith transferred to their high school Junior year and stole his ranking among their class. Lance had been really hard on himself about it, especially when it seemed like Keith didn’t even need to try. Lance did all the homework but still got bad scores on his tests.

Keith hardly did any homework but managed to get perfect or near perfect scores on his tests. With his SAT and ACT scores, he could probably go to any school he wanted to, but he wasn’t. It didn’t make any sense to Lance, who had to go to their local university. However, he made due with it and wasn't too down since Hunk and Pidge would be going there too. They didn't have to, either. They were both amazingly smart and he didn't know why they wouldn't go somewhere else, but it was comforting to know they were staying with him and that he wouldn't be alone.

Keith opened Lance’s door without warning. He switched back to the college’s tab to make it look like he was doing something important. A reflex from living with his parents.

“At least knock, would you?”

Keith knocked on the already opened door. “Better?” Lance didn’t reply. Keith went up behind Lance at his computer. “How many classes are you taking?”

“Four; I don’t want to be too overloaded. I know most people do six or more, but I have work and I don’t really want to have more than two classes a day if I can help it. It just depends on what the schedule is. I need my beauty sleep, you know. “

Lance caught that he was rambling and was getting no response. “What did you come in here for?” he barked.

Keith backed up a little, “Oh - just, it’s nothing, nevermind.”

“You know it’s super annoying when people do that, right?” he glared at Keith, who wouldn’t make eye contact with him.

“Did you know you're annoying every waking moment?” Keith hissed. It stung.

There was a pause before Lance said, “Yeah, you too, now what the Hell did you want?” Lance saw Keith’s quiet scoff in the way that his face looked like he wanted to throw up. Of course he looked like that. He obviously disgusted him. “ _Seriously...why did I ever think this idea would work?”_

“I just wanted to say not to touch my shit. It’s personal.”

“I wouldn’t want to touch your nasty shit anyway; it’s probably full of oil and sweat.”

Keith met his eyes, “Well then good.”

“Yeah.”

“YEAH.” Keith closed the door harshly and left Lance back to opening the gaming tab.

☷

Keith had initially gone there to apologize but would rather fight with Lance than have him make fun of him for being weak. He felt bad, but couldn’t get himself to go back and say what he really wanted to. He didn't want to push Lance away over some stupid frustration.

He decided to wait it out and get the nerve to genuinely apologize. He played some video games to take any lingering frustration out in the fantasy world. He enjoyed the movement the game made him do, as if he was really the one with the sword in his hand; as if he was really Link, the courageous hero. He’d beaten it several times but never got bored of it.

Keith looked at the oven clock when he saw Lance walk out of his room. He didn't even notice a couple hours had passed since he’d started. Keith was standing in the middle of the living room with his imaginary sword and shield up.

“You look ridiculous.” Keith heard Lance say it, but was too focused on the game to look at his expression.

“Thanks.”

Keith paused the game and turned his head around. He couldn’t see him. “Lance?”

“In the kitchen~” he called from the one corner of the kitchen that wasn’t visible from the livingroom.

Keith walked over to where Lance was, rummaging through their nearly empty cabinets.

Keith tried to take this opportunity to actually apologize like he was supposed to last time they talked. “Hey I--”

“You didn’t eat the cereal,” Lance cut him off.

He almost lost his train of thought with the interjection. “What?”

“You didn’t eat it. It’s still sealed.”

“Well, yeah, I just didn’t feel like it after all. “ Truthfully, Keith hadn’t wanted to eat it in the first place. He’d only wanted to save Lance the trouble of buying it himself.

Lance hummed, and Keith tried to get back to what he was going to say. “So anyway -”

“Do we have any chips or something? Like goldfish crackers? Some kind of snack?” Lance rummaged in the cabinet for some trace of food.

“No, not really, but I can get some?” Keith suggested.

“No, it’s okay, we don’t really need them anyway.”

“Okay...back to what I was going to say -”

“What about bread?”

He started to fume, and felt himself losing his composure. “WOULD YOU STOP INTERRUPTING ME? And YES we have bread!”

“Alright, cool it.”

Keith could feel the last comment getting under his skin and threatening to mess this whole apology up. He couldn’t think of a time when anyone actually calmed down from someone telling them to “chill” or “cool it”, but he tried to swallow his anger or he would never get through it.

He took a deep breath in and out. “I just wanted to say, y’know, that I’m...sorry” he mumbled the last word.

“What?”

“Sorry,” he raised his voice only slightly louder than before. He was able to peak Lance’s interest and hoped for the best, “for getting so mad earlier when you asked about my sketchbook.” He needed to do this. He didn’t want to lose Lance’s friendship. “Don’t take it personally. I wasn't really frustrated with you. You still can’t see my art, but...yeah.”

“Thanks.”

Keith blinked, a little shocked.

Lance shrugged slightly. “Yeah, thanks. It must’ve took a lot of effort to apologize, coming from you.”

“ _Ahh, there is it,_ ” Keith thought, disappointed.

“I’m joking...partially.” “say, I’m done being cooped up in my room, but don’t really feel like doing anything, either. Mind if I watch you play? After I get some food,”

“N...no...no not at all.”

“Cool.”

“Cool.” 

Keith slowly walked back into the living room, giving Lance a couple more glances on his way out of the kitchen.

Lance joined him shortly after and watched from the futon. He felt awkward with him watching from behind and felt hyperaware of his own movements and positions but was quickly sucked back into the game.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy oh boy,,, I have really long gaps between uploads, but honestly these in-between chapters where I'm trying to build up their characters are the hardest and I'm really excited to get to all the good stuff I have planned and will have more fun writing. I haven't ever written a story this long before and it's a bit frustrating at times but a lot of fun!! Thank you to everyone who's been reading, I hope it's at least a bit enjoyable haha;;
> 
> I'm so excited to write this, and I hope you stick around through my non-existent posting schedule. I may go back and change a few things from time to time. I did a tiny bit of editing on my other chapters the other day but if I ever change something like a whole sentence or something I'll be sure to jot it down in these notes. 
> 
> I really want to hear your guys' opinions though!! I don't really know how I'm doing ^^;
> 
> If any of you are interested in BNHA my friend is writing a fic for it! her ao3 is [FaithPeachy](http://archiveofourown.org/users/FaithPeachy/pseuds/FaithPeachy)


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